Raptors of Western North America--together with its companion volume, Raptors of Eastern North America--are the best and most thorough guides to North American hawks, eagles, and other raptors ever published. Abundantly illustrated with hundreds of full-color high-quality photographs, they are essential books for anyone seeking to identify these notoriously tricky-to-identify birds.

The Wheeler Guides will help birders and biologists navigate the pitfalls of raptor identification, including raptors' often extreme variation by age and sex as well as the existence of numerous "confusion" species. The plumage section discusses more plumage variations--and in greater consistency, depth, and clarity--than any previously published guide. The text--informed by years of study and consultation with local, state, provincial, and regional experts--covers all aspects of raptor biology in an easy-to-read and consistent format. It provides the most up-to-date information available on status and distribution, taking into account the recent alteration of some species' ranges due to pesticide bans and introduction programs. The range maps--which include "city" plotting--are the most accurate and largest ever produced for North American raptors.

Review:

"This astoundingly detailed guide makes it possible to recognize age classes, molting patterns, subspecies and sexes of most birds of prey. Visual aids make these soaring creatures identifiable even to the birder-challenged. The guide would be considered a bit excessive except that the hundreds of stunningly crisp photos document these species like no other guide (there are 82 photos solely of red-tailed hawks!)"--David Lukas, Los Angeles Times

"These two books are major contributions to the literature of North American vultures and Falconiform raptors. . . . [B]oth Wheeler books should be owned by every hawk watcher and raptor biologist."--Donald S. Heintzelman, International Hawkwatcher

"[These are] publications that go beyond the coverage of other field guides. . . . [A]n important addition to your library."--Deb Dowdell, New Jersey Audubon

"This book is both a tour de force and a labor of love, and the immediate new standard for diurnal raptors in western North America."--C. Stuart Houston, The Canadian Field Naturalist

"The new Wheeler guides are, by far, the best guides for field identification and general reference for North American raptors that I have seen. The photos are both plentiful and stunning. . . . The new Wheeler guides, like the birds they elucidate and display, are gems for us all. They are well worth having."--Donald Sweig, Audubon Naturalist News

"These books will be purchased (and devoured) by folks with a passion for raptors. . . . Beautifully produced and well researched references that will aid beginning and expert raptor enthusiasts alike."--Julie A. Heath, Journal of Field Orthinology